Feeding day went well

[MacWin]

Well I guess what I read was true BP's love gerbils lol. Bob had not eaten in 2 weeks so I had started to worry about him thats why after seeing a post on here I decided to give him a gerbil.

A little backstory seems to be in order, Since I have had Bob I have fed him live ( I know I know I should feed him FT) I am always watching to make sure everything goes ok and everything has been great. Well 2 weeks ago I thought I would try to stun the rat before I gave it to him. Well I stuned it put it in there and it freaked him out and he wanted nothing to do with it. Then a week later (They eat every Monday) he still refused to eat, so I thought well I'll wait until next week.

Well today Nanners (baby Cali King) ate his first pinkie and did pretty good although his striking and constricting technique need a little work lol. But Bob after 2 weeks of being stubborn showed a lot of intrest when i just put the gerbil box in his cage while I gave Nanners his pinkie.

I then went back to Bob and set the gerbil loose in the cage watching closely with Tongs at the ready in case of trouble. He instantly coiled ready to pounce, he let it walk by once then on the gerbil's next stroll by BOOM he was on him. I was very happy like I have said in another post in the few months we have had him Bob has very much become a part of our family.

I think I may wait a while longer to try to switch him over to FT or stunned prey. Any suggestions on how to make this a less stressfull or easier process I am all ears. By the way if your buying a gerbil from a petstore make sure not to mention it's food for your python lol. I went to Petco first and made that mistake. So I had to go to another Mom & Pop store up the road.

The lady in the store made sure to tell me to not put the gerbil in a cage with another gerbil as they will fight :lol:. I was all Uh Huh sure won't. All in all a good day for reptiles at my house.

P.S. why is it that BP love to eat Gerbils so much?

[snakeys1996]

congradulations! my new bp has not eaten yet but i got him about a week ago and i only tried once. i dont think its a problem yet because i heard they can take a while to get used to their surroundings. i am also going to call the guy i purchased my snake from to find out if he ate his mice stunned, live, or F/T. but again congradulations, it must be awesome to watch a snake eat

[MacWin]

I was very relieved when he struck and coiled the gerbil. From all the info I have read on these forums about fasting and such I was afraid that Bob was not gonna eat for a while. But he ate great today and I couldn't be happier.

[Wizill]

if he'll eat live he'll eat stunned, and usually by stunned we mean knocked completely out... aka, freshly killed. feeding stunned prey, as has been discussed before, can be potentially dangerous... just like feeding live. the snake could attempt to swallow the rodent without trying to kill it. the rodent could then of course awake, and eat the snake to bits. feeding live prey is also very dangerous, so try to switch asap.

[iceman25]

Now he is not gonna want anything else but gerbils for dinner :wink:

[JLC]

iceman...what is that picture you're using for your avatar?

MacWin...bp's like gerbils so much because at least some areas of their natural habitats overlap and they are a natural prey. In areas where they don't overlap, there are other rodents very similar to gerbils that they'll eat.

[iceman25]

Its the Anaconda from the movie with JLO

[JLC]

Its the Anaconda from the movie with JLO

LMAO! Gee...can't imagine why I didn't recognize it for a 'conda! Here I was thinking it was something fake!